Efforts to quantify factors influencing the mediation of myofacial pain associated with occlusal dysfunction and temporomandibular joint disorders have been initiated. These include computer-based photometric analyses of interference patterns produced from thin photoplastic wafers on which occlusal stress patterns are recorded from selected patients being treated for myofacial pain, and appropriate controls. Also being developed is an analysis designed to provide accurate measurement of changes in size and shape of the articular surface of the human condyle. Software developed originally by Dr. Jay Udupa of Radiology Associates, Medical Imaging Section, University of Pennsylvania, intended to facilitate 3-D image display of tissues radiographed in serial fashion using CT methods is being adapted to permit posture-independent assessment of changes in size and shape of selected tissues and tissue segments. Accuracy of the technique is to be tested using CT images produced from cadaver specimens in which independently-induced changes in the size and shape of an excised condyle are known. Preliminary data suggest that statistically meaningful measures of occlusal balance both bilaterally and anterior-posteriorly can be obtained from computerized analyses of the stress patterns recorded in occlusal wafers on control patients. Other preliminary findings obtained from CT scans of cadaver specimens indicate that the ability to identify reliably, displacement of the capsular ligament of the temporomandibular joint, from routine CT scans, may be influenced by the scan geometry.